Citation

García-Sancho E, Dhont K, Salguero JM, Fernandez-Berrocal P. Scand. J. Psychol. 2017; 58(4): 333-340.

Affiliation

Department of Basic Psychology, University of Malaga, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Scandinavian Psychological Associations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/sjop.12367

PMID

28570776

Abstract

High neuroticism and low agreeableness have been found to predict higher levels of aggression through an increase of negative emotions such as anger. However, previous research has only investigated these indirect associations for physical aggression, whereas evidence for such indirect effects on other types of aggression (i.e., verbal or indirect aggression) is currently lacking. Moreover, no previous work has investigated the moderating role of Ability Emotional Intelligence (AEI), which may buffer against the effects of anger on aggression. The present study (N = 665) directly addresses these gaps in the literature. The results demonstrate that high neuroticism and low agreeableness were indirectly related to higher levels of physical, verbal, and indirect aggression via increased chronic accessibility to anger. Importantly however, the associations with physical aggression were significantly weaker for those higher (vs. lower) on AEI, confirming the buffering role of AEI. We discuss the implications of our findings for theoretical frameworks aiming to understand and reduce aggression and violent behavior.

© 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggression; agreeableness; anger; emotional intelligence; neuroticism; personality